Emirates GBR second after Race Day 1 in Cadiz after 'battling hard' in choppy conditions

by Emirates GBR SailGP Team 4 Oct 2025 19:43 BST 4-5 October 2025

The Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team is currently second on the event leaderboard after Race Day 1 of the DP World Spain Sail Grand Prix in Cadiz. The crew amassed 31 points after finishing the four fleet races with a scorecard of 1-5-5-2. The Brits are just one point behind Denmark's ROCKWOOL Racing, who sit top with 32 points, while New Zealand's Black Foils are currently third with 22 points.

Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher said the team was "battling pretty hard" on the racecourse, after crew sizes were reduced from six people on-board to just four. This meant Strategist Hannah Mills had to jump on the grinding handles to provide the power to manoeuvre the F50's wing - a role normally performed by burly duo Nick Hutton and Neil Hunter.

Mills said: "It was seriously hard work out there, with the surging waves the wing has to go in and out more which requires more power, so it was a big day for all the female athletes stepping on to the grinding handles."

The double Olympic gold medallist added: "You're on a knife edge the whole time, if you drop one manoeuvre or you get something slightly wrong, which is a lot easier to do when there's only four of you on-board, everything becomes trickier - and when you add in the waves you feel like anything can happen, so you just don't stop going hard until you cross the finish line."

The day started in the best possible way for Emirates GBR, as they took the win in Race 1 and claimed 10 event points. The crew was second across the start line behind Switzerland, before managing to overtake the Swiss at the second gate. The Brits managed to maintain the lead for the rest of the race as they kept their F50 foiling despite the marginal conditions, with Flight Controller Luke Parkinson being named one of Rolex's Precision Athletes of the Day for his 93.68% flight time across the four races.

The second race was dominated by Denmark's ROCKWOOL Racing who managed to secure a huge lead on the rest of the fleet with a 99.5% flight time. Emirates GBR prioritised a clean race and came out with a fifth place. The third race began with New Zealand's Black Foils first across the line, before they suffered a crash down in the second leg and dropped from first to eighth. This gave Australia's BONDS Flying Roos a chance to steal the lead and secure a race in, while Emirates GBR came away with another fifth place.

The fourth and final race of Day 1 saw Denmark's ROCKWOOL Racing storm across the start line while Emirates GBR followed closely behind. The two teams maintained those positions for the rest of the race, with Rockwool Racing claiming their second win of the day and Emirates GBR pulling off another consistent performance and a second-place finish.

Three more full fleet races will take place on Sunday, before the top three teams head into the winner-takes-all event final. It's set to be a crucial day for Emirates GBR, who are looking to bolster their season points in Cadiz to give themselves the best chance of entering the $2m 2025 Season Grand Final race on Abu Dhabi next month.

Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher said: "We are just focused on getting into the top three at this event as we know if we do that we will be in a good place for Abu Dhabi, but right now we're not really thinking about the Grand Final, we just want to remain consistent and keep chipping away."

Racing resumes from 14:30 BST and UK viewers can follow all the action live on TNT Sports and discovery+.